What Should They Teach Professional Accountants?

Where I live, in order to become a Chartered Accountant (the Canadian equivalent of a CPA), you need the following:

Courses Hours

Financial accounting 15
(introductory, intermediate and advanced)

Cost & management accounting 6

Advanced accounting elective 3

Auditing 9

Taxation 6

Business information systems 3

Finance/financial management 3

Economics 3

Law 3

Total credit hours 51


What do you think? Is the above enough? What skills seem to be lacking in the young accountants work with?

Here's my wish list:

Communications - how to explain financial information to non financial people, how to present clearly, making a clear case for action, how to organize the lines on a financial statement, how to analyze data so that the analysis leads to a clear course of action.

Working With Data - how to select, filter, sort and present data. How to build a spreadsheet model. How to use a report generator.

Project Accounting - I don't know why we teach cost accounting but not project accounting. Most of my clients have had some form of project work.

Business Ethics - These days, I think that is self-explanatory. If you don't start when you are a student, when will you have time for this subject?

Additional Topics Statistics, Interest calculations (discounting, annuities, mortgages) and risk management (including insurance).

What would you add?

The Worst of Both Worlds

Small companies are nimble and respond quickly to their customers' needs. Big companies can take on large projects and provide a wide range of products. But what happens when a big company downsizes to become a small company? Does it regain its nimbleness or does it end up as the worst of both worlds?

Having been through several downsizings, I have to say that it's a little like lovers trying to go back to being "just good friends". It's not impossible, but it takes a complete change of mindset.

It isn't enough to look at the budget constraints and downsize until the gap between revenues and expenses has been closed. You have to have a new vision for the resulting company and ensure that you have the right team in place to carry out that vision. Although it involves a lot of pain for everyone involved, the right long term answer might be to cut deeper than you have to in order to give yourself room to bring on the new people you need to move ahead.

As we move forward into uncertain economic times, the possibility of increasing inflation and taxes, accountants will be called upon to raise difficult questions of corporate sustainability. Courage!